This invention pertains generally to keyboard apparatus and more particularly to an actuator for operating the keys of a keyboard in response to electrical signals.
With the advent of computerized equipment such as computing postal scales, the signals produced by such equipment have been utilized to control the operation of other devices such as postage meters, ticket printers and the like. Many existing devices have manually operated keyboards which do not lend themselves to direct control by the electrical signals produced by the computing equipment. In order to permit the use of computing equipment with such devices, there have been some attempts to provide actuators which can be attached to the keyboards to operate the keys in accordance with the signals from the computing equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,507,376 discloses a key actuator for a typewriter or other similar device which requires a separate solenoid for each key to be actuated.